A Game Of Life
by avrovulcan
Summary: An assignment goes wrong and Napoleon has to play a game of chess with THRUSH rules to secure his and Illya's lives, Will he win? Originally published on LJ for Picfic Tuesday.


"So Mr. Solo, are you ready to play?"

"Do I really have a choice?"

Napoleon sat across the table from his adversary, a chess board between them; a game had been set up on the checkerboard surface, white yet to make the first move, Napoleon was black.

His opponent smiled evilly, "No, I'm afraid not."

"I didn't think so, what's the prize if I win?"

"Why, you and Mr. Kuryakin will live, well, at least for two hours; any longer and that will depend on you escaping this little maze of mine before it blows up."

"And if I lose?"

Denman smiled maliciously, "You both die in here, and don't forget my unique rules: every time I lose a playing piece, your partner over there gets hurt."

The American looked over towards Illya, he was sat on the cot behind the bars separating his cell from the large room where the game was taking place; four more empty cells opened onto this hexagonal space, an open corridor making up the sixth side.

Three burly guards stood in the room with Kuryakin, ready to deal out the punishment, the Russian looked resigned to his fate.  
With a sigh and an apologetic look, Napoleon turned away from his friend and made his first move.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Six hours earlier._

It was a simple search and destroy, it should have been easy, but sometimes things don't always turn out the way they're planned, this was one of those occasions.

They'd been sent to a mansion in North Carolina. An impressive building in the greek revival style with italianate ornamentation, similar in appearance to the Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington, after which the residence was designed. It was set in it's own extensive grounds and surrounded by an imposing wall; a couple of seemingly innocent outbuildings stood within the grounds.

The assignment was to retrieve plans for a new weapon powerful enough to alter the Earth's magnetic field, causing untold chaos and disruption to aircraft, ships and anything else that relied on compass bearings. If the machine had been built they were to destroy it - completely.

Illya had scaled the wall and helped Napoleon over before they dashed for the mansion, avoiding the few guards that were patrolling the grounds. On gaining entry to the domicile, Napoleon looked at the blueprints they had obtained and tried to locate the study.

Too many seconds ticked by, Kuryakin sighed and peering over his partner's shoulder, quickly pointed the room out to Solo before quietly making his way towards their objective.

"I do not like this, Napoleon, it is too easy. Where are the guards that should be in here?"

"I know what you mean tovarisch, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth, it's a change from being shot at."

"I would rather be facing bullets, I know what to expect then. This is not right."

Illya's feeling had been correct; unbeknown to them, infra red sensors had picked them up and a silent alarm was alerting Thadius Denman to intruders in his home.

The two agents were rifling through drawers and filing cabinets when Napoleon found what they were looking for and quickly scanned the papers.

"According to what I can see in these, it doesn't look like they've constructed it yet, Illya, it's still in the planning stage."

Kuryakin quickly joined Solo, agreed with his analysis, and went to put the file in his rucksack, but before he could, the door opened and admitted the THRUSH and two of his guards.

Napoleon, still holding the file, put it back in the drawer and slipped an incendiary device in with it, he'd rather destroy the file than leave it in enemy hands.

He noted Kuryakin had seen what he'd done and understood from the Russians subtle body language he was ready to act as soon as Solo did. He counted down from six and balanced on the balls of his feet; ready to launch an attack when the miniature explosive detonated, creating a diversion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Napoleon sighed and made the second move; calling out as he did so, "pawn to king four."

"Pawn to queen's bishop five."

Solo decided to go for the closed sicilian move and moved his queen's knight to queen's bishop three. After a gruelling fifteen minutes, trying to spare Illya as long as he could, the American took his opponent's first piece.

"I was beginning to think I was going to have to give orders to rough your friend up regardless of whether you took one of my pieces." Denman sneered as he signalled his guards to attack the Russian.

Kuryakin didn't let the goons have an easy time of it, putting up a good fight before he was finally secured between the two biggest slabs of muscle, while the third laid into him until he almost passed out.

"That's enough, I want to enjoy this and I can't if you beat him unconscious at the first opportunity." Thadius snapped.

The guards let Illya go and his legs buckled, gathering strength and not wanting to show how weak he felt, he lowered himself onto the cot and sat to watch the continuing game. His eyes telling napoleon he was fine and didn't blame him for the treatment he'd received.

"Now I believe it's my move Mr. Solo. knight to king's bishop four."

The American cursed, he'd been left with no choice but to take another of his opponent's playing pieces. Napoleon considered himself a good chess player, but Denman seemed to be a master, it was going to be difficult to beat him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
_Earlier._

The explosive went off; using the distraction, Illya and Napoleon both launched themselves at Denman and his guards. Illya fought like a Tasmanian Devil, a blur of legs and arms as he took one beefy guard down.

Napoleon was losing fast to the other huge goon, who seemed to absorb the impacts, Illya jumped on the guards back and tried pummeling him across the neck, but he was flung over his assailants shoulder and landed on the floor, his breath knocked out of him; seeing the goon coming for him he rolled out the way and stood ready to launch another attack,

"Napoleon I could do with some help here."

"What do you think I'm doing" Solo panted,"I don't know what he's made of, he just won't go down."

Denman enjoyed watching as the two agents tried to overcome Benson, but failed miserably. Eventually, and completely exhausted, Solo and Kuryakin were both knocked out cold.

They were carried to an outbuilding, one slung over each of Benson's massive shoulders. Once through the door, a secret entrance set into the floor opened to reveal stairs going underground. Descending down these, Thadius led the way through a maze of passages and finally into a hexagonal room where five barred doors opened into cells.

It was some time later when the two UNCLE agents woke, both groaning and checking for injuries.

"Nothing broken, how are you, tovarisch?"

"Fine, apart from a drum beating in my head."

"Glad you could join us, gentlemen. I have a little proposition for you Mr. Solo. I hope you like chess..." Thadius Denman smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Illya was looking worse for wear, his lip was split, there was bruising to his face, his torso was black and blue, he suspected he had a couple of cracked ribs, and it didn't look like his situation was going to get any better, he winced as he took a painful breath.

Napoleon was finding it hard to keep ahead in the game; he'd been in check a couple of times and had his opponent in check once, he feared he was losing the game, few of his pieces were left and he cringed every time he took a black one, he knew his friend wouldn't be able to take much more punishment.

"King to queen's bishop three, and I do believe it's checkmate, Mr. Solo." Denman smiled with malice.

The American ran his hand through his hair and sighed, this had been a hard fought game, he'd tried his best but it wasn't good enough. Benson pulled Napoleon out of the chair and shoved him into the cell with Illya.

Just then another guard came charging into the room and spoke to Thadius, alarm clearly written in his face.

"It seems you have a reprieve, we are under attack and I have to go," he turned and ran to the corridor, beckoning his guards to follow, then throwing over his shoulder, "good luck finding your way out of the maze, you have twenty minutes before this place is rubble," laughing echoed behind him as he disappeared.

Helping Illya to his feet, they staggered down the passageway, at the end it split into two directions, and there was no clue as to where Denman had gone.

"Okay which way?" Napoleon sighed.

"Right."

"Sure?"

"No, but we have a fifty percent chance it is the correct choice."

"Your logic is impeccable." Solo grinned.

They walked further and were again presented with a choice, either straight on or left. Illya indicated straight on and they proceeded in the chosen direction, shortly the passage turned sharply to the right before it led to the next junction. They carried on, so far only making two wrong turns, but Napoleon felt increasingly lost and hoped that Illya had some sense of where they were going.

"How much time do you think we've got left?" Napoleon asked.

"I would say around another eight minutes."

Illya stumbled and, under his breath, gritted out a few obscenities in his native language, he quickly recovered himself, ignoring the pain in his chest and striding purposefully forward, he didn't want Napoleon knowing how badly he was hurt, his friend would only worry too much and the Russian needed to make sure he got themselves out of here first, before he could gladly surrender himself to unconsciousness.

"How are you feeling?" Napoleon enquired of his partner.

"Fine, if we do not hurry up, we will be stuck in here... permanently."

"You're not fine and I don't mind telling you I'm completely lost."

"You would get lost even if there were signs giving directions."

"Hey, I'm not that bad, anyway I find it hard to believe you have any idea where to go."

"Mazes are usually based on mathematics, after those earlier wrong turns, I worked out the formula. We should just make it out in time, I can feel a breeze."

Napoleon realised his friend was right, the exit must surely be near.

After another two turns, they came to the stairs which rose up into the opening in the floor of the outbuilding hiding the subterranean maze.  
They just managed to get far enough away from the building before a rumble shook the ground and dust and debris spewed out behind them. Two figures came running over to the downed agents, both were relieved to see it was April and Mark approaching.

"What're you doing here?" Napoleon asked with amazement.

"We received more intelligence reports and The Old Man decided to send us in, mate." Mark answered.

"I am very glad to see you,".Illya affirmed; he started coughing up blood, then finally passed out from the pain.

"I think we need to get you out of here darling." April said as Napoleon picked up his friend and made his way to the waiting car.

"Just another day at the office then, mates." Mark grinned, used to seeing the Russian being carried, unconscious, by his partner at the end of an assignment.


End file.
